I’ve heard, but haven’t been able to confirm, that USA Water Polo’s Board of Directors extended the contracts of Adam Krikorian and Dejan Udovicic for another Olympic cycle. They reportedly did so before the Paris Olympics and before the new CEO, Jamie Davis, assumed his position on October 1. Krikorian was reported to be a candidate for the CEO position. I haven’t seen any communicatons from Davis (or from the Board of Directors) about the new 4-year contracts. If Udovicic serves the full 4-year term, he will have served as the men’s coach for longer than Monte Nitzkowski, the most successful U.S. men’s national team coach.
Happy you are hearing that Krikorian has been extended. Thanks for sharing.
If this is accurate, both Dejan and Adam truly deserve this recognition! Udovicic has established himself as one of the greatest US national team coaches of all time, especially impressive considering the challenges of today’s American system compared to the competition. It was a different story in the 1980s when European professional leagues and players were largely semi-professional.
Although Krikorian certainly deserves it, I’m surprised he would choose to continue. However, there are few career options for a water polo coach who has reached the top of the profession. Despite his remarkable achievements both as a coach and as an individual, it’s unlikely he could easily transition to a public-speaking tour or writing a book.
No surprise on the men’s side as Dejan is as good as it gets for USA but little surprised Adam would choose to continue. I guess he might want to get the women back to Gold and then hang it up but this will be very hard to accomplish with competition globally getting better each year! Either way they are great coaches and well deserve to continue their posts.
In dreamland - Adam could take part in the most interesting sport / social experiment ever - Assume CSU Bakersfield or UC Riverside or someplace like that revived their program and needed a coach - would rich, private school girls from SHP or O-Lu or Bishops that wanted a path to the National Team choose xxx University with AK at the helm over the Big 3 or the Ivys?
If even AK can’t attract the top domestic recruits at a mid-rate school, what chance does anyone else have?
2 Likes
Maybe Adam can take over at UCSB.
Someone confirmed that Deian has been extended but I haven’t seen that Adam K was confirmed. Could it be that he wasn’t extended and the person who is taking over the job is an NCAA coach and they have requested that the Transfer Portal be closed before the announcement of the new coach for the WSNT is announced?